Chick-fil-A Keeps Humans at Speaker as McDonald's Battles Pricing Suit

McDonald's faces a proposed class-action lawsuit filed October 2 in federal court in Chicago by customer Michael Thomas, who alleges the chain's shared pricing algorithm coordinated menu prices across independently operated franchises. The complaint claims McDonald's:

• Used confidential restaurant sales data through a pricing-recommendation tool
• Pressured franchisees to follow the system's recommendations
• Tracked when franchisees deviated from those recommendations

Thomas argues the practices reduced competition and pushed customer prices higher.

McDonald's denies the allegations. "The complaint is filled with inaccuracies and we will vigorously defend against this lawsuit," McDonald's Corporation said in a statement. "AI does not set menu prices at McDonald's restaurants – McDonald's franchisees do."

The company says franchisees independently set their own prices and may choose whether to use the pricing recommendations. McDonald's also denies dynamic pricing or changing prices in real time based on individual customers.

Separately, McDonald's is testing Archy, an AI voice-ordering system that takes drive-thru orders in English and Spanish and claims accuracy above 90%. Archy sits inside a broader platform called ArchIQ, which handles inventory and equipment monitoring. The company says the tools simplify operations and free employees to serve customers.

The push comes after McDonald's ended an earlier voice-ordering test with IBM in 2024. That rollout reached more than 100 U.S. restaurants and drew viral videos of botched orders.

Will humans stay at the Chick-fil-A speaker?

Chick-fil-A says yes. CEO Andrew Cathy told CNBC the chain will not substitute drive-thru order-takers with technology, framing the company's approach as "human plus."

"We're not gonna substitute that interaction with technology, because we feel like that hospitality is so important to create that warm environment for consumers," Cathy said.

Chick-fil-A drive-thrus typically place employees outside with tablets, taking orders and directing cars through lines that wrap around buildings. Cornell University professor Alex Susskind, who studies restaurant operations, told Fortune those human contacts make the wait more tolerable.

"Technology has an important role in restaurants, particularly when it removes repetitive tasks without sacrificing service," Susskind said. Before adopting automation, he added, operators should ask: "Is this making my customers' experience better or more meaningful?"

What happens when the bot gets the order wrong?

Susskind has seen it firsthand. He called a local pizzeria to order one large pizza, half pepperoni and half plain cheese. An AI phone assistant kept insisting he wanted two pizzas, even after repeated corrections. With no quick path to a person, Susskind drove to the restaurant, where staff said the system had a bug.

The episode reflects a wider pattern. Customers face ordering bots that turn one pizza into two. Employees then clean up mistakes made by technology that was supposed to ease their jobs.

"We only talk about technology when it doesn't work. We've been using AI in a million different ways without even knowing it, or without calling it AI," Susskind told Fortune.

Career expert Keith Spencer, who studies AI's effect on workers, said automation can strip out routine tasks but leave staff handling complaints, correcting bot orders, and troubleshooting systems they did not choose to implement.

"If AI takes over routine tasks while workers have more opportunity to focus on customer service and problem-solving, it could make shifts more manageable," Spencer told Fortune. "If the primary goal is simply to reduce labor hours, the impact could look very different."

What does the pricing case hinge on?

Antitrust attorney David Scupp said the legal question turns on whether competing businesses shared confidential information through a common tool and kept real independence on price.

"In general, having a human making the final pricing decision and being able to reject or accept the pricing recommendation, I think, makes it less of an antitrust problem," Scupp told Fortune. The underlying data and how the system runs still matter, he added.

The pricing case is separate from McDonald's drive-thru AI work, and the allegations have not been established in court. For Susskind, the broader test is whether technology improves the experience rather than getting in the way of it.

"Hospitality is a human business," he said.